PEARSALL ? The Eagle Ford Shale boom has brought almost 50,000 workers to South Texas, and San Antonio-based caterer Don Strange of Texas is capitalizing on the demand for food with a new food and entertainment venue here as well as catering services in the oil fields. The store offers a pool, a stage for live music and an air-conditioned restaurant and bar area with two televisions for workers to blow off steam after long hours in the fields. On Thursday evening the barbeque pit smoked and Luke Olson performed live country music, the sound spilling into the open windows of the restaurant where food trays and beer cans sat out on the tables. In addition to the general stores Strange and his partners look to open, Don Strange of Texas is cashing in contracts to cater in the oil fields as employers seek long-term services to provide their crews multiple meals per day on site. Rosemary's Catering of the RK Group has seen a spike in business from the shale play and has hosted several full-service catering events for visiting oil executives looking for lodging, which is hard to come by in the region. Paul Nix, vice president of sales for Rosemary's Catering, said the company has been able to accommodate executives who want to stay close to the shale, but want a ranch experience, by putting on events in their 2,500-acre Picosa Ranch venue, located outside Floresville.

Hiring in construction and manufacturing helped the state add 13,200 nonfarm jobs last month, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday. On an unadjusted basis, the San Antonio area's unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent from 6.6 percent in March and 7 percent in April 2011. Since January, the rate has dropped 1.1 percentage points. Education and health services registered the next largest increase, 2,400 jobs, followed by professional and business services, up 2,300 jobs. Mary O'Rourke, the credit union's senior vice president of human resources, said it had no trouble filling the majority of job postings. The only other sectors to show a loss were the financial industry, down 800 jobs, and trade, transportation and utilities, off 500 jobs.

The reminiscing touched on his career as a banker, as the force behind HemisFair in 1968 and as the founder of solar-power advocacy group Solar San Antonio. Mayor Julián Castro set the tone by lauding Sinkin as a ?bridge builder? and a man of moral courage. In a video, Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, said Sinkin is a San Antonio icon, like the River Walk, and called him a mentor and dear friend. More than 8,000 U.S. women in the United States and in 11 foreign nations contributed money to build the Women's Pavilion. Credit union executive Aurora Geis, a former chairwoman of the CPS Energy board, said Sinkin ?has had a lot of doors close on him? as he's pitched for greater use of solar energy in the city. Sinkin ended the affair by saying that in 1999, he became interested in green building and solar energy, and that's one of the things I really have enjoyed.

The CE Group Inc. announced Thursday the formation of creative goods and services division called the Goods Collective to help organizations with their branding and marketing needs. The new division brings together the graphic design, VIP gift programming and other creative services the CE Group has provided clients into a single unit.

In December, NADBank directors and the Border Environment Cooperation Commission approved certification and financing for the design, construction and operation of a photovoltaic solar energy plant, expected to generate sufficient electricity to supply power to about 3,500 homes.

Tesoro Corp. and the United Steelworkers union have reached an agreement at the refiner's plant in Mandan, N.D., a union spokeswoman said Friday. Steelworkers at Tesoro's plants in Kapolei, Hawaii and Salt Lake City ratified agreements on March 20 and April 3, respectively. Steelworkers at three plants owned by San Antonio-based Tesoro are expected to vote on local agreements in next week. Those plants are in Anacortes, Wash.; Martinez, Calif., and Los Angeles. San Antonio-based Tesoro has seven plants. Its Alaska refinery is nonunion.

Biglari reported that Steak ?n Shake's same-store sales increased 4.8 percent in the latest period, mainly because of a rise in customer traffic that was partially offset by lower average selling prices.